Petacchi wins without Milram ‘train’

‘Gasper’Gasparotto and Killer Di Luca share jerseys

Stunning Sardinia scenery

The Giro set off for the third stage for a largely flat run to Calgaria on
the Italian Island of Sardinia on May 14.

An early break went clear and from it Mikhaïl Ignatiev (Tinkoff) and Giovanni
Visconti (Quick Step) stayed away until with four kilometres left the peloton
caught them. Almost immediately Credit Agricole’s Nicholas Roche acted as hare
to the hounds and struck for home.

Now in full cry the pack soon had Roche back and surprisingly the Milram team
did not create a train for Alessandro Petacchi to travel on. Petacchi was thus
was forced to go it alone and attacked from about 300 metres to go and held
the rest off to win.

Petachi’s position of top sprinter had been widely questioned beforehand, having
not scored a big win for many months, but in Calgaria the ‘King’ proved he was
back and to his obvious delight.

1. Alessandro Petacchi (I), Milram, 181 km in 4:22:57 (41.072kph)
2. Robert Forster (G), Gerolsteiner s/t
3. Maximilian Ariel Maximilian (ARG), Ceramica Panaria
4. Robbie McEwen (Aus), Predictor-Lotto
5. Danilo Napolitano (I), Lampre
6. Aliaksandr Usau (Blr), Ag2r Prevoyance
7. Lloyd Mondory (F), Ag2r Prevoyance
8. Enrico Gasparotto (I), Liquigas
9. Rojas Gil Jose Joaquin (Sp), Caisse d’Epargne
10. Volodymyr Bileka (Ukr), Discovery Channel

Overall
Liquigas kept the Pink jersey in their camp when Danilo Di Luca handed it back
to Enrico Gasparotto.

1. Enrico Gasparotto (I), Liquigas, 10:03:48
2. Danilo Di Luca (I), Liquigas, 0:00
3. Andrea Noe’ (I), Liquigas, 0:00
4. Franco Pellizotti (I), Liquigas, 0:00
5. Vincenzo Nibali (I), Liquigas, 0:00
6. Charles Wegelius (GB), Liquigas, 0:00
7. Paolo Savoldelli (I), Astana, 0:13
8. Eddy Mazzoleni (I), Astana, 0:13
9. Andrey Mizourov (Kaz), Astana, 0:13
10. Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz), Astana, 0:13